Monitoring Fayetteville units/talk groups (Durham-Fayetteville P25 system)

[kf4esh]

Greetings all...

I recently added a Whistler 1065 to my arsenal of equipment and have it programmed for all of the local Viper systems (Hoke, Cumberland, Robeson and Bladen counties + SHP) and the Fayetteville units that are on the Durham-Fayetteville P25 system (Fayetteville PD, Hope Mills PD, Spring Lake PD, Fire & EMS).

My concern - I am picking up TONS of traffic from the Viper and conventional systems but am hearing NOTHING that I have noticed from the Fayetteville systems.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks that I may have missed for tracking and monitoring the Fayetteville units on the Durham-Fayetteville system? I have verified that I have the correct control channels and even had a friend who works on the SHP vehicles/radios look at it and we don't see anything obvious.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

If it matters, I am using PSREdit500 to program the radio.

 

[kf4esh]

Update:

I swapped out the antenna last night to see if that helps. The antenna is an actual high gain 800mhz mobile antenna that came off a decommissioned SHP vehicle (thanks to a friend who works at their radio shop) mounted outside at the roofline of my house so it should pull ANYTHING within range and the towers should all be in range.

As I was typing this, I just noticed some Fay PD traffic show on the display but it sounded scrambled. Is Fay PD scrambling their signals now??

 

[kf4esh]

I just caught this talk group and it was definitely scrambled:

13600

3520

D

FayPD Camp1A

Campbellton Dispatch 1A

Anyone have options or ways to monitor?

 

[kf4esh]

This one is scrambled too:

13601

3521

D

FayPD Cent2A

Central Dispatch 2A

 

[kf4esh]

And these:

13615

352f

D

FayPD CCrk3B

Cross Creek 3B

13614

352e

D

FayPD Cent2B

Central Dispatch 2B

Sooo... it appears that changing the antenna solved PART of my problem. I am picking up the traffic. But, it's scrambled.

Any input on options to hear them welcome!

 

[trumpetman]

Fayetteville is a simulcast I believe. More antenna means more signal that can cause difficulty for your scanner to decode. Look up linear simulcast modulation and how it effects scanners. Move your scanner around the house if you have just a back-of-set antenna and see if you can get the signal to clear up. Add attenuation or even try a paperclip to reduce your reception. The key is to try and get your scanner to only hear a single tower out of a simulcast. A directional yagi antenna helps significantly for base setups and even a basic antenna on the back of your scanner may work as well.

 

[kf4esh]

Update:

I started hearing Fay PD units here and there last night but some still sounded encrypted/scrambled. Today, it seems that all are coming in clearly. So, I don't know if they had switched to encrypted for a period of time then switched back or if I was experiencing either some sort of interference or an attenuation issues as mentioned by trumpetman above. Just to be safe, I set the attenuation on the Fay PD system in case that was the issue.

 

[JDrisc3480]

Being overseas, I listen to Fayetteville using Broadcastify and for like 3 or 4 days during the riot that feed was not online. They might have gone encrypted for that period of time and then once things calmed down, switched it off.

 

[kf4esh]

I was listening to a feed on Broadcastify during the first night of riots downtown and the feed went silent at one point and stayed that way. Based on that and what I was experiencing when I started this thread, I believe you are right. They may have activated encryption during the riots and just turned it off over the past couple of days. I talked to a friend who works on the Viper systems for SHP and he said it's very possible that they did that.

 

[doctorbubba010]

Do you believe with them seeing the benefits of this If FAYPD will go dark as well?

 

[hamstang]

I was listening to a feed on Broadcastify during the first night of riots downtown and the feed went silent at one point and stayed that way. Based on that and what I was experiencing when I started this thread, I believe you are right. They may have activated encryption during the riots and just turned it off over the past couple of days. I talked to a friend who works on the Viper systems for SHP and he said it's very possible that they did that.

For what it's worth, Charlotte Mecklenburg switched to encrypted talkgroups during a recent period of significant events, but has returned routine radio traffic to unencrypted talkgroups. Also, for several years I tried to monitor the massive Charlotte Mecklenburg UASI P25 simulcast system using a BCD996XT and an outdoor yagi antenna. Was only able to copy bits and pieces until I purchased a Uniden SDS200 last year. I was amazed how much better the SDS200 receives the simulcast Charlotte Mecklenburg system even using the back of the set antenna that came with the radio. SDS200 not cheap but it just works.

 

[doctorbubba010]

Does anyone have the SDS100 or SDS200 in the Cumberland-Durham area. Is it clear through simulcast. Also what antennas are y’all rocking. Looking to put an NMO on my Vic.